Will City Lose $2.5 Billion Film And Residential Development?

A major snag could be in the picture for Villa Muse, the $2.5 billion development in East Travis County that would include a major film production studio, office buildings and high-end housing.

Villa Muse would lie outside Austin city limits but within its five-mile growth zone, known as an “extra-territorial jurisdiction,” or ETJ. Villa Muse wants out of the ETJ, but the city is saying “not so fast.”

The dispute means Villa Muse could be built somewhere else. Billions of dollars, the power to regulate the development, and potentially the future growth of the motion picture and creative industry in Central Texas are at stake.

Villa Muse wants to take 1,100 acres of land — 80 percent of which is floodplain — fill it in and turn it into a state-of-the-art production studio surrounded by business and housing, a creative village for perhaps 9,000 people.

The project wants out of the ETJ to avoid Austin’s boggy red tape and city taxes.

The project is the dream of Austin-born Jay Podolnick, who insists Villa Muse would still generate billions for the city.

“It’ll bring $6 billion on the construction alone, annually $20 billion and somewhere from 40,000 to 100,000 jobs to the area,” said Podolnick, Villa Muse CEO.

Podolnick said Villa Muse would be a magnet, stopping Austin’s talent drain.

“It’s important Texas doesn’t lose more talent that are fleeing because of the incentives and infrastructure around the world being built by governments to where we lose our talent pool,” Podolnick said.

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